Episode 87 - Tim McBride

Tim McBride is a former marijuana smuggler/pot hauler who had a hand in bringing millions of pounds of pot into the country via Everglades City from the late '70s until the late '80s.

His book “Saltwater Cowboy: The Rise and Fall of a Marijuana Empire”, which was published in 2015, details how he wound up smuggling weed in the Everglades, after leaving Wisconsin in 1979 to do some work as a crab fisherman.

He and his crew were middlemen between a Colombian marijuana cartel and their distributors in Miami. His team included fishermen, drivers, stock houses, and security - his book says seemingly all of Chokoloskee Island was in on the operation back then. Tons upon tons of marijuana would pass through his hands during that time...until he was busted in 1989, and spent four years in prison.